


The Dead City

by Rebecca Hb (beckyh2112)



Category: The Mummy Series
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, stupid teenager tricks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 07:36:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2804645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckyh2112/pseuds/Rebecca%20Hb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a young teen, Ardeth Bay challenges himself against the Creature's city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dead City

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Many thanks to Dark Puck for encouragement and beta-reading.

Ardeth knew he should not be here. The Medjai were not to enter Hamunaptra unless there were invaders, and he wasn't yet truly sworn as a Medjai. Only a man could risk his life in guard over the Creature, and he was still a boy. No matter that the line of his fathers back to the pharoahs of Egypt had been; he had to face the oaths and take the rites the same as any other. 

He tethered his camel outside the city. It was an old one, unlikely to be missed by his uncles' herdsmen tonight. His falcon remained at home - everyone would know he had gone somewhere if he took it. Ardeth never went anywhere without Horus.

He took down the saddlebags and spread them across his own shoulders. In gratitude, the camel lipped at his sleeve.

Basma would smile at him when she heard of his adventure. Maybe she would even stop sharing her smiles with Melek. Maybe then Ekrem would not argue with him so much about her. She was a beautiful girl, it was true, but Ardeth was not as oblivious to her attempts to get him alone as Ekrem thought he was. But Ekrem was his friend, the two of them as close as brothers for all they'd only met a handful of years ago.

Everyone knew Basma's father loved his little girl, and he would not marry her to a man she did not care for. And everyone, Ekrem included, thought she and the chieftain's son should be married.

Except for the chieftain's son himself. Ardeth sighed and began the long walk to the city. He would not take his camel any closer and risk it to whatever dangers might be there.

***

He set up the most basic campsite he could then turned in a slow circle to see how the city looked from all angles. He would be a Medjai; he wasn't going to lose his gear.

Certain of what the area around his camp looked like, he set off to explore in the ruins. He checked his backtrail often, sometimes turning around and retracing his steps until he was sure of where he was. The mausoleums of his ancestors were great works, though he knew he would have go inside if he wanted to see their true beauty. But inside the city and underneath the sand was the Creature's domain.

It was dead, everyone knew, but he had listened to the stories of the Medjai since he was a babe in his mother's arms. They said it still reached out to touch the living. Its presence sent wild gusts through the city, guttering fires and flinging sand. There were sounds in the night - some of them as if the city was alive, some of them like chanting. Sometimes they were unplaceable, but they made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Sometimes men woke in the night to hear skittering over rock. Once a party had awoken to find the guard dead, his brain consumed from within by a pair of scarabs.

Ardeth didn't think the Creature was dead. It slept, and its nightmares corrupted the city.

A kilometer from his base camp, unease slithered up his spine. He checked his backtrail - was he sure of the way?

Yes. He'd just checked on it not three meters back. So why was he worried? He cocked his head, listening. No hooves on sand, no drag of foot over rock, not even the soft step of camels or the sound of the wind stirring the sand.

He scowled at himself and pressed onward. But he found himself stopping to listen, to check his backtrail more and more often. Goosebumps prickled his skin, baffling in the heat of the day.

It was so quiet. There wasn't even the rustle and slide of shifting sand. It made his breathing loud - if anyone had followed him, they would know exactly where he was in the city. But he didn't hear anyone. He didn't even hear his own footsteps.

He was alone in Hamunaptra. Except no one was ever alone in Hamunaptra, because the Creature-

A gust of cool air startled him. He jumped and whirled, hand going to his sword-hilt.

But it was only another doorway open into the darkness beneath the city.

***

When he stepped around another ruin and saw the statue of Anubis, Ardeth understood. Then he cursed himself for a fool. He **knew** the Creature disturbed all who entered Hamunaptra. He'd heard it all his life.

But that wasn't the same as feeling the cold sweat on his brow or the unease from recognizing something else was in the empty city with him. 

Ardeth gritted his teeth and forced himself to walk towards the statue. Yes, he feared the Creature - only a madman wouldn't - but he was no coward. Let Melek say it to his face, and Ekrem dance around saying it at all for why he didn't pursue Basma. 

He thought Anubis grinned. Great. He was getting sun-addled on top of everything.

Sand turned to dust beneath his feet, and he sank up to his knees in it. He bit back a yell, only to have it knocked out of him when a wave of sand struck him in the chest. All around him, sand flowed and burst like- like the Nile, maybe, though he'd never seen the great river. Not yet.

He thought he heard something else beneath the sound of the shifting sand.

Ardeth took a long breath through his nose, wishing he had a tagelmust to keep the sand out. But he wasn't a man, and only a man could wear the veil. Just as only a man could guard Hamunaptra. Probably they were connected, he thought darkly, as the sand began to settle.

Carefully, Ardeth began to work his legs loose from the sand holding him. It took more work than it should have. Somehow, he knew he couldn't fall. If he went to his hands and knees- This was a fight. He could not lose, he must not submit. Not in this city. 

Sand grasped at him like hands. It didn't want him to go.

The Creature didn't want him to escape.

His skin crawled, and he licked suddenly dry lips. No. He would get out. He would fly as free as one of his falcons.

***

It took over an hour before he could stand atop the sand once more. The afternoon was fading. He needed to get back to camp and set it up properly.

He didn't want to spend the night in Hamunaptra without some defenses.

***

His dreams were restless and scattered.

_He is sworn to defend the pharoah, but he stands inside the doors of the princess's chambers. His friend, his captain, asked him to stay with her while he could not. His friend has gone with Rameses to war._

_"Medjai!" She screams, and he rushes through her apartments. "Your pharoah needs you!"_

_He freezes on the balcony behind the princess, stunned as the concubine drives a knife into her own gut. He did not think it possible. She loved herself too much to do such a thing._

He half-woke to find himself soaked with sweat and shivering. But he sank down, down into dreams.

_The Creature is still a man, walking with the princess. He instructs her in the history of the bracelet, the rhythms of a chant underlying the stories he tells. It is one of the sacred, secret stories of Anubis - **why** the judge of the dead gave such power to the Scorpion King._

_Ardeth follows behind, silent and unnoticed. It is his duty as a Medjai to protect the pharoah and his household, and his personal duty to protect the princess._

_So he follows in their wake, and some part of him is surprised the Creature does not love her._

His sleep seemed dreamless for a time after that. Or maybe he didn't remember them.

_He and his friend sit at the table together, laughing and joking. They are young, raw new recruits. But they will make something of themselves, they are sure of it._

_Years later, they stand side-by-side as the captain promotes them yet again. They are awarded the honor of service to Rameses._

_With that honor, Nefertiri drifts into their lives. The princess was too precious for them to ever see so closely before, but she is dear to her brother and he to her._

_His friend becomes besotted with her._

_(He thinks, too, she might have noticed his friend in return.)_

A skittering sound startled him awake. Ardeth gripped his long knife, then sat up and fed the fire higher. Only after he was certain there was no threat did he go back to sleep.

_The princess and the concubine are fighting. He notes their skill with a slowly sinking heart. The concubine is better, for all he and the priests of Set have instructed the princess._

_The pharoah and the Creature watch them both, close as he and his friend used to be. But his friend still has not come back with Rameses._

_Both their eyes are too often on the concubine, he thinks._

***

Dawn was a relief. Ardeth packed his camp quickly and made his way back to where he tethered the camel. Only a few hours riding brought him back to his father's camp. He walked through the rows with his head held high. Only when he came to his father waiting outside his tent did he look away.

Silently, he dismounted from the camel, and they both went inside. Father took off his veil, while Mama looked profoundly disappointed in him.

"I won't ask why." Father raised a hand to forestall an answer. "You are a boy of our people. Of course you would do such a thing. It is only to be expected. But to spend the whole night there? You frightened your mother."

"Most people don't return from such a trip," Mama said, her voice tight. "You are very brave, my son, but bravery needs to be tempered with wisdom."

Ardeth hung his head. He hadn't meant to frighten his parents. But Hamunaptra- the Creature killed grown men. Of course he should have realized they would be afraid for him.

"Wisdom comes with experience. So, we are sending you to Cairo," she continued. "My uncle, your great-uncle, is the curator of the Museum of Antiquities there. You will learn from him and from a _living_ city."

Ardeth nodded. "Yes, Mother."


End file.
